Bizarre Creations 'shut down by Activision'

Sources have told Giant Bomb that owner Activision has closed the Liverpool studio and has made its 200-strong workforce redundant.

Although it has yet to reveal the extent of the redundancies, Activision has confirmed that it is "exploring options" and may consider selling the studio.

"Over the past three years since our purchase of Bizarre Creations, the fundamentals of the racing genre have changed significantly," read the statement according to Shack News.

"Although we made a substantial investment in creating a new IP, Blur, it did not find a commercial audience. Bizarre is a very talented team of developers, however, because of the broader economic factors impacting the market, we are exploring our options regarding the future of the studio, including a potential sale of the business."

The studio is known for its work on the Project Gotham Racing and Geometry Wars franchises, and worked on arcade racer Blur released earlier this year.

It also recently developed Blood Stone 007, which performed poorly at retail, reaching the 18th position in the all formats chart in its launch week.